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Centennial ^nnttersarp 



OF 



WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION 



PROCEEDINGS 

IN THE FIRST PARISH MEETING-HOUSE, 

AT GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
April 30, 1889. 



& 



GROTON: 

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 
1889. 



/ 



Centennial gfonftersar; 



OF 



WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION 



PROCEEDINGS 

IN THE FIRST PARISH MEETING-HOUSE, 



AT GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 



April 30, 1889. 



GROTON: 

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 
1889. 



So 



JSnibcrsitn igrcB0 : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



I. ANTHEM. 



II. INVOCATION. 

BY THE REV. JOSHUA YOUNG. 



III. AMERICA. 



IV. RESPONSIVE READING. Psalm xxxiii. 



V. "LOCAL HISTORIC EVENTS." 

BY FRANCIS M. BOUTWELL, ESQ. 



VI. "JOURNEY OF GENERAL WASHINGTON TO NEW YORK. 

BY THE REV. JOHN BARSTOW. 



VII. ORIGINAL ODE. Sung at Trenton, 1789. 



VIII. "INAUGURAL CEREMONIES OF PRESIDENT 
WASHINGTON." 

BY THE REV. FRANK C. WHITNEY. 



IX. STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 



X. READING INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

BY DANIEL J. DINAN. 



XI. EPISCOPAL SERVICE. Old Style. 

BY THE REV. FNDICOTT PEABODY. 



XII. TE DEUM. 

BY THE STUDENTS OF " GROTON SCHOOL." 



XIII. "PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY DURING THE CENTURY. 

BY THE REV. JOSHUA YOUNG. 



XIV. ANTHEM. 



XV. PRAYER. 

BY THE REV. FRANK C. WHITNEY. 



XVI. BENEDICTION. 

BY THE REV. FRANK C. WHITNEY. 



COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 



HON. DANIEL NEEDHAM. MRS. LUCY HUNT SMITH. 

MRS. ELLEN M. NEEDHAM. MISS LUCY F. YOUNG. 

CAPT. JAMES M. SMITH. MRS. SARAH L. HODGMAN. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



LOCAL HISTORIC EVENTS. 

By FRANCIS M. BOUTWELL, Esq. 

THIS house of worship was raised in 1754, and completed 
in the following year ; it was therefore in existence 
twenty years before the Revolutionary War opened. For a 
long time it was the only meeting-house and the only public 
building in town, except the schoolhouses, which were too 
small to be of use for large gatherings of the people ; so that 
all town-meetings and other assemblages were held here. 
Could these walls speak to us they would, no doubt, impart 
wonderfully interesting information. 

Early in the month of March, 1775, a few weeks before the 
battles of Lexington and Concord, the Rev. Samuel Dana, 
the minister of the town at that time, preached a sermon in 
this house, in which he advised his people not to attempt 
resistance of the mother country ; for in his opinion such 
action would result in defeat, in which event their situation 
would be much more unfortunate than it was then. The 
people were so irritated that they declined to permit him to 
preach the following Sunday, and this event practically closed 
his career as a minister of the gospel. A committee was 
formed, with Dr. Oliver Prescott at its head ; and after con- 
ference with the minister he signed a paper, in which he 
apologized for anything that he might have said in his ser- 
mon that had perchance wounded the feelings of any of his 
hearers, and also expressed regret that he was not able to 



entertain the political opinions held by the great majority of 
them. Mr. Dana continued to live in Groton for several 
years, studied law, and entered the practice of his new pro- 
fession at Amherst, New Hampshire ; and for a long time he 
was Judge of Probate of Hillsborough County in that State. 

On the famous 19th of April, 1775, the alarm 'had reached 
Col. William Prescott at his home in Pepperell ; and he 
had left his work, had called his men together from Pep- 
perell and Hollis, and arrived here about the middle of the 
day. The men rested upon this Common, then an open field. 
In this building were our Board of Selectmen, assisted by 
other citizens, preparing and issuing arms and ammunition to 
the Groton soldiers who belonged to Colonel Prescott's regi- 
ment. The commanding officer waited for some time, but 
finally decided to move on and leave our men to follow when 
they should be ready, which they did. When Colonel Prescott's 
men marched into town and on to the Common, his brother, 
Dr. Oliver Prescott, then chairman of the Board of Select- 
men, was heard to say, "This is a disgrace to us," — our sol- 
diers not being ready, when we had quite an advantage over 
those living beyond here, in point of time, in receiving the 
alarm. 

Groton had five Selectmen at that time, — Dr. Oliver Pres- 
cott, Col. James Prescott, Capt. Josiah Sartell, Deacon Isaac 
Farnsworth, and Capt. Amos Lawrence. Three of them were 
of Groton's ablest and most useful citizens. Dr. Prescott, a 
brother of Col. William, was a leading physician in this vicin- 
ity, and a man of some note, not only here at his home, but 
in Boston, and to some extent in other parts of the Province. 
Col. James Prescott, another brother, was a patriotic and a 
prominent man. Capt. Amos Lawrence was father of Deacon 
Samuel Lawrence, and grandfather of Amos and Abbott 
Lawrence. 

On the Fourth of July, 1776, a day which has since be- 
come famous, the Provincial Congress passed a resolution 
calling upon the people of this Province to remove the lead 
weights from the windows of their houses and public build- 
ings, to be made into bullets, and the Commissary-General 



was authorized to pay the market price for all lead received. 
It is known that the lead weights were removed from these 
windows during the Revolution to be made into bullets, and 
it is not unlikely that they were taken out in pursuance of 
that resolution. 

Mr. William Kemp, the somewhat famous drum-major, who 
died a few years ago at the advanced age of ninety-five years, 
once told me that he attended the memorial services held in 
this meeting-house after the death of General Washington. 
He was then a boy about ten years old, and of course saw 
with a boy's eyes ; and the thing that seemed to have im- 
pressed him most — in fact the only part of the proceed- 
ings of which he appeared to have any recollection — was 
that several times during the services, which were held in 
the evening, Major Woods, as he called him (meaning Major 
Samson Woods, a son of the famous Major Henry Woods), 
passed round the room and snuffed the candles. I very much 
regret that I am unable to give you any further information 
of what occurred upon that occasion. Mrs. Sarah (Capell) 
Gilson, who was born in November, 1793, and is still living, 
says that as she was only six years old her parents thought 
her too young to attend ; but she remembers seeing her 
mother fastening crape upon the arms of her two brothers, 
older, who were to be present at the exercises. 

In closing, it may not be out of place for me to call your 
attention to some of the great changes that have occurred 
here during the last one hundred years. In the year 1790 
the first census of the United States was taken, and it then 
appeared that Groton was the second town, in number of 
inhabitants and in importance, in the county of Middlesex, 
Cambridge being the only larger place. Groton then con- 
tained about eighteen hundred inhabitants, and Cambridge 
about twenty-one hundred. And strange as it may seem, this, 
the second town in population and importance in this county, 
had never enjoyed the privilege of a public conveyance to 
any other place, although the town had been in existence one 
hundred and thirty-five years. A few years later a stage 
began to run between Groton and Boston, two or three times 



IO 



each week. It was a very primitive wagon, as you may 
readily imagine when I say that the thoroughbraces were 
iron chains. 

The first United States mail came to Groton in November, 
1800. The first postmaster was Samuel Dana, a son of the 
minister to whom I have referred. He was then a young 
lawyer, but afterward became a judge and quite a distin- 
guished man. Before that time letters for persons in Groton 
and the country about here came to the Boston post-office ; 
and in the old Boston newspapers we see letters advertised 
as remaining in that office for persons living here and in the 
surrounding towns. When a man had occasion to go to Bos- 
ton he would, no doubt, return with letters in his saddle-bags 
directed to his neighbors and to persons living in this vicin- 
ity, to whom he would send them as he had opportunity. 
Now we are hardly satisfied with two mails every day to and 
from all parts of the country, and three to Boston. The gross 
receipts of the Groton post-office for the first year of its exist- 
ence amounted to twelve dollars and some cents. 

I have stated these facts, that you may realize the wonder- 
ful changes that have taken place in Groton since the first 
President of the United States was inaugurated. 



WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY TO NEW YORK. 

BY THE REV. JOHN BARSTOW. 

Pastor of the Union Congregational Church. 

r I "HERE is a lady living in Cortland, New York State, the 
-*• daughter of a former pastor of this church, who, if she 
were here to-day, and had only been born somewhere be- 
tween Virginia and New York instead of in Groton, could 
tell us more about Washington's journey than any one here 
can. To be sure, she was only three and a half years old 



1 1 



when that memorable journey was undertaken (younger than 
any little children I see before me this morning) ; but one can 
almost say (I am not sure that it would be the best thing to say 
it), — but one can almost say that had she been three years 
younger she could not help remembering such a wonderful 
event. It was talked about in every home. I do not suppose 
that a house was passed on that eventful journey but had 
some faces peering eagerly out of the window or door ; and 
if there was a small boy anywhere about the premises he was 
sure to run out to the road, and with hands in his pockets 
gaze steadily at the man who was to be the President, until 
he had passed out of sight. Never before this time had there 
been a King or Emperor or President in this country. The 
king who had been the nominal ruler of the land, whom every 
one detested because of his selfish cruelty, lived more than 
three thousand miles away. He had never visited the coun- 
try ; he knew nothing of the people, and they knew but little 
of him. 

Now a better than a king was to be the ruler of this land, — 
a man well known to the people and dearly loved by all, one 
whom every one delighted to honor. 

In his quiet, pleasant retreat at Mount Vernon, in Virginia, 
Washington had been notified of his unanimous election to 
the office of President of a free and united people, by a man 
who was a great-great-uncle by marriage of our present Presi- 
dent Harrison. On the 16th of April, one hundred years ago, 
he bade farewell to Mount Vernon, to private life, to the joys of 
his home, to the merry laughter of the two little grandchildren 
whom he fondly loved, and with a firm, unwavering trust in 
God entered upon what he called " the arduous but pleasing 
task of attempting to make a nation happy." 

Manifestations of their happiness were abundant on every 
hand. Though Washington would have been glad to 
journey to New York, the then seat of government, in a 
quiet way, he was not allowed to do so. Hardly had he left 
one place of any importance where he had been most royally 
entertained, before he would meet a committee from the next 
principal place, who would escort him into the city amid the 



12 



ringing of bells and roaring of cannon. As he crossed the 
line into the State of Pennsylvania, he was met by the Gov- 
ernor with a large civil and military escort, which kept con- 
stantly increasing ; a superb white horse was led out for him 
to mount, and leaving his carriage he rode under triumphal 
arches entwined with laurel, and entered Philadelphia amid 
the jubilations of the multitude. 

Washington's journey all the way to the seat of govern- 
ment was a continual ovation. At Gray's Ferry on the 
Schuylkill River the most elaborate preparation of any made 
along the route was awaiting him. The boys and girls had 
doubtless scoured the woods and fields for laurel and ever- 
greens, and wild and cultivated flowers alike had been gath- 
ered to make everything look as beautiful as possible. On 
one side of one of the arches were eleven flags bearing the 
names of the eleven States that had adopted the Constitu- 
tion, and many different mottoes were found everywhere. If 
ever a little girl was envied by other little girls (and boys as 
well), it was that little Angelica Peale, who was chosen to 
drop a wreath of laurels " at just the right time and in the 
right way" on the head of Washington, as he passed under 
one of the archways. 

What thoughts must have come to Washington as he pur- 
sued his journey ! He was no stranger to many of these places. 
As he crossed the Assunpink Creek, near Trenton, under a tri- 
umphal archway, twenty feet wide and supported by thirteen 
columns, all entwined with evergreen, — upon which were in- 
scribed, in large gilt letters, " The Defender of the Mothers 
will also protect the Daughters," — how his thought must 
have gone back twelve years, to the time when the clouds 
hung low over the Colonists, who were almost discouraged in 
their efforts to secure their independence. Then it was that 
on a Christmas night he crossed the Delaware River, filled 
though it was with floating ice, and won that glorious victory 
at Trenton ; and a week later at Princeton, — victories which 
gave the Americans new hope and greater confidence in their 
leader, and which proved to be the turning-point in that great 
conflict. 



13 

Now again he was entering Trenton, but under what differ- 
ent circumstances ! Then he met the deadly foes of the 
country ; now he meets a number of young girls dressed in 
white and crowned with garlands, who strew flowers before 
him and greet him with the ode we are soon to hear, — 

" Welcome, mighty chief, once more, 
Welcome to this grateful shore ! " 

Washington declared that the impression of this ovation 
could never be effaced from his heart. 

On approaching New York, though he had requested that 
he might have a quiet entry devoid of ceremony, he was met 
by a committee of both Houses of Congress and many other 
prominent men. At Elizabethtown Point he went on board 
a splendid barge, constructed for the occasion, and with music 
and every bright and pleasing accompaniment that the hu- 
man mind could devise, he entered the harbor of New York, 
and was soon landed on Murray's Wharf, amid the ringing of 
bells, the roaring of cannon, and the shouting of the jubilant 
multitude. 

To an officer who stepped up to him as he landed, an- 
nouncing himself as commanding his guard, Washington 
said, " For the future the affection of my fellow-citizens is 
all the guard I want." And that guard has never deserted 
him, and never will. We gather here to-day to place one 
more wreath upon his brow, and to give him one more tri- 
umphant ovation as we cross the line from one century into 
another. 



14 



INAUGURAL CEREMONIES OF PRESIDENT 
WASHINGTON. 

BY THE REV. FRANK C. WHITNEY. 

Pastor of the Baptist Church. 

r I ""HE 30th of April dawned at last, — that supreme day 
-*- of the nation's joy, that day on which the nation's 
favorite should be invested with the highest office in its 
power to bestow. New York was filled to overflowing, and 
filled from all parts of the land. The people had no iron 
horse, indeed, to annihilate space, with a thousand persons 
on his back, like the one passing through Groton yesterday ; 
but they came, and they thronged the city. Every tavern and 
boarding-house was filled, private residences were crowded, 
and many were compelled to sleep in tents. And still they 
came. Long before daybreak they were on their way. The 
Hudson was alive with boats, while great caravans were arriv- 
ing from Westchester and Long Island and the Jerseys. 

The sun rose that morning behind a cloud, and the appear- 
ance was that of a gathering storm ; but with the ringing of 
the bells the sky began to clear, and before noon the weather 
was serene and beautiful. The day seemed prophetic of the 
nation's future. 

The scene of the inauguration was Federal Hall, the seat 
of Congress, which stood at the head of Broad Street. Upon 
the second floor of the hall was a balcony overlooking the 
street, plainly visible therefrom as well as from the windows 
and roofs of the adjacent houses. Upon this balcony it was 
decided to administer the oath of office. The furnishing was 
very simple : in the centre of the balcony stood a table with 
a rich velvet cover ; upon this was a large and elegant Bible 
resting upon a cushion of crimson velvet. That was all. 

The ceremonies of the day began at sunrise with a salute 
of thirteen guns from the Battery. At nine o'clock the bells 
of the city rang merrily for half an hour. At ten the people 
were summoned to their churches for worship, in which the 



15 

blessings of Heaven were implored upon the nation and upon 
her first President. At noon the procession began to form in 
front of the President's residence, in Cherry Street, to con- 
duct him to Federal Hall. It was a magnificent procession, 
and no pains were spared to do honor to the man whom the 
nation delighted to honor. If his journey to New York was 
a continual ovation, this surely' must be raised to the dignity 
of a triumph. 

The procession was headed by Col. Morgan Lewis, the 
Grand Marshal, attended by Majors Van Home and Morton. 
Next to them were the military companies, chief among 
which were the troop of horse, the two companies of grena- 
diers, and a company of Highlanders in kilts with their 
national music, the bagpipe. The President rode in a coach 
of state, drawn by four horses. Preceding him were the 
Senate Committee, and following him the Committee of the 
House. Then came the chief municipal officers, the new 
cabinet, the French and Spanish ambassadors, other men of 
note, and a multitude of distinguished citizens. 

About forty rods from the hall the President with his suite 
alighted, and walked between the troops which were drawn 
up on either side. At the door of the Senate-chamber he 
was met by the new Vice-President, John Adams, who con- 
ducted him to a chair of state at the upper end of the room. 
Then, in the midst of a profound silence, and with his own 
unaffected grace of manner, Mr. Adams said : " Sir, the Senate 
and House of Representatives of the United States are ready 
to attend you to take the oath required by the Constitution, 
which will be administered to you by the Chancellor of the 
State of New York." " I am ready to proceed," was the 
reply of Washington, made with his accustomed dignity. 

He then repaired to the balcony, accompanied by the Vice- 
President, Chancellor Livingston, Governor Clinton, and 
several other distinguished men. By this time Broad Street 
was crowded to its utmost capacity, the windows were filled, 
and the roofs above were thronged with citizens, all waiting 
eagerly to catch the first glimpse of the beloved form now 
advancing:. 



i6 



His appearance was greeted by a universal burst of ap- 
plause, and the multitudes vied with one another in their 
shouts of joy and welcome. 

The sight was too much for the great chieftain. He who 
never quailed in the presence of the enemy, now melted in 
the presence of his friends. Advancing with solemn dignity 
to the front of the balcony, he bowed several times with his 
hand on his heart, then sank down in an armchair, overcome 
with emotion. At once the people were hushed to silence, 
and waited until he had recovered sufficiently to proceed. 
He soon rose and advanced to the table where stood the 
Chancellor and Mr. Otis, Secretary of the Senate, who was 
supporting the Bible on its velvet cushion. The oath pre- 
scribed by the Constitution was then read by the Chancellor, 
with great deliberation and emphasis. The President repeated 
it after him slowly; then, bowing, kissed the Bible, with closed 
eyes and deepest emotion, saying, "I swear; so help me 
God!" 

The Chancellor then turned to the people, and waving his 
hand, exclaimed, " Long live George Washington, President 
of the United States ! " 

At the same instant a signal-flag was displayed on the 
cupola of the hall, at which there was a general discharge of 
artillery, the bells of the city rang out a merry peal, and the 
people rent the air with their joyful acclamations. Bowing 
again to the people, the President retired from a scene " such 
as the proudest monarch never enjoyed," — " first in war, first 
in peace, first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens." 



i7 



PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY DURING THE 
CENTURY. 

BY THE REV. JOSHUA YOUNG. 
Pastor of the First Parish Church. 

[It is proper to preface this address with the remark that there were present, by special 
invitation, the pupils of the " Groton School," and of the several public schools of 
the town, to the number of about three hundred. The attendance of so many school- 
children was one of the most interesting features of the occasion. The Ode originally 
sung at Trenton was rendered by thirteen young women, representing the thirteen original 
States.] 

SOME say that the age of miracles is past ; but no Ameri- 
can history ever told them so. From the day which we 
celebrate, when Washington, President-elect by the unanimous 
choice of the people, was inaugurated, and our republican sys- 
tem of government went into operation, until this hour, — one 
hundred years, — the progress of the United States in popula- 
tion, wealth, and comfort, in letters and arts, in all that adorns 
and embellishes civilized life, has been simply prodigious, a 
perpetual miracle ; and all the world wonders. In the annals 
of all nations we find no parallel to it. 

When Washington took the oath of fealty to his great office, 
the nation he was called to preside over occupied but a nar- 
row strip of land lying along the Atlantic coast. To the east 
stretched a boundless expanse of ocean, and westward lay an 
equal expanse of wilderness. The. section of country divided 
into the recently admitted States of Montana, North and 
South Dakota, and Washington — well christened that hon- 
ored and beloved name, in this centennial year ! — was at that 
time even more a Terra Incognita, with all its vast adjacent 
territory, than is now the interior of Africa ; while the great 
river Mississippi, which with its tributaries affords twenty 
thousand miles of steamboat navigation, poured its yellow 
waters into the sea as silent and unvexed by the wheels of 
industry as the river Congo. 

In 1789 there were but six hundred thousand white families 
in the United States, and, speaking broadly, with few excep- 



i8 



tions all were poor. The single State of New York or Penn- 
sylvania has to-day more inhabitants than had the whole 
country at that time. There were but four cities having a 
population of more than ten thousand. And even these few 
large cities — New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore 
— were but larger collections of the wooden houses which 
composed the villages. The social condition of the people 
had all the features of a new country, aggravated by the diffi- 
culties of intercommunication. Their daily life was of the 
simplest sort. The country was almost exclusively agricul- 
tural. That the steamboat and the railroad were then prac 
tically unknown I need not say ; the telegraph and the 
telephone were not so much as dreamed of. When Charles 
Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, set out for 
Mount Vernon to carry to General Washington the certificate 
of his election, he was a full week in making the journey 
which may now be easily performed between the rising and 
setting sun of a summer day. 

Such, to the outward eye, was the inferiority of our coun- 
try when the foundation was laid of the imposing national 
structure we are now permitted to regard. Indeed, it is im- 
possible for a modern American to realize his nation's early 
poverty and weakness, — its strength reduced and its re- 
sources sadly crippled by a long and arduous struggle for 
independence. 

What a marvellous change of things and men, — so weak 
then, so mighty now! And this magnificent empire of our 
arts, our morals, our literature and laws, has been but a 
century in building ! But what a century ! These hundred 
years have changed the world ; and this country of Wash- 
ington has been the theatre on which a great part of that 
change has been wrought, and Washington himself — in- 
comparable man! — a principal agent by which it has been 
accomplished. " His age and his country are equally full of 
wonders, and of both he is the chief." 

Compared with the immemorial origin of Asiatic nations, 
this American Republic is but an infant of a day ; compared 
with the States of Europe, it has not yet outgrown its youth. 



19 

Yet to what a giant in physical proportions the child has 
already grown ! Extending through twenty-five degrees of 
latitude, the waters of the Mexican Gulf lave its feet, and the 
evergreens of Canada crown its head. Or, for symmetry's 
sake, changing the position and placing its feet on the Pacific 
shore, the length of our colossus is twenty-eight hundred 
miles ! 

Make the circuit of this vast territorv, following the boun- 
dary line on the two oceans and the Gulf of Mexico and the 
line of frontier toward British America, and we have as the 
circumference of these United States upwards of fifteen thou- 
sand miles, — almost two thirds of the circumference of the 
great globe itself ! 

Such is the present geographical magnitude of our country ; 
and its physical resources, both in variety and value, are com- 
mensurate with its extent. A little while ago — 

" Great spaces yet untravelled, great lakes whose mystic shores 
The Saxon's rifle never heard, nor dip of Saxon oars ; " 

and now, instead of a waste and a solitude, behold the wav- 
ing grain-fields of a continent, — • a world's bread-tray! For 
while the population of our country is increasing about one 
and a quarter millions annually, enough every twelvemonth 
to make as populous a city as New York, our food-supply is 
growing even faster, keeping in excess of consumption. 

Politically, grown already from thirteen to forty-two States, 
still more, of equal or even greater magnitude, forming out 
of the raw material of territory already explored, are looming 
up on the horizon, like new worlds emerging from nebulae, 
and will soon wheel into shining line. From a little hand- 
ful of people, about three millions, we have increased, as 
probably the next census will show, to seventy or eighty 
millions ! 

And not to forget that next to the public virtue of a people 
their intelligence, rather than their numbers or their riches, is 
the true glory of a nation, it must not be left unsaid that dur- 
ing the last year at least seventy-five million dollars were 
devoted to the single purpose of education, — a sum of money 



20 



several times as large as the income from all the imports and 
exports of the whole country in 1775. 

Our colleges have increased from four to hundreds, our 
academies and high schools to thousands ; and our free pub- 
lic-school system, so long the glory and pride of our New 
England, now that the barbarism of chattel slavery has been 
swept away, is fast extending its blessings to every part of the 
land, and the precious book of knowledge is being unsealed to 
every child, white or black, throughout the length and breadth 
of the land, — not excepting the " rude child of Nature," the 
Indian. 

Such, only too inadequately sketched, is our country, as it 
presents itself to-day to the eyes of an amazed and admiring 
world. And when we think that in this great body, and in all 
the parts thereof, dwells incarnate the living and life-giving 
spirit of liberty ; that here are all the streams — 

" That whirl the myriad, myriad wheels 
Of all that does and all that dreams, 
Of all that thinks and all that feels, 
Through spaces stretched from sea to sea," — 

what mortal imagination can begin to conceive what this 
great continent in no remote future will be, when filled up 
with a vast homogeneous population, speaking one language, 
all nationalities fused into one grand brotherhood ! 

What impresses me most, as I think of the past and of the 
future of this great Republic, — compact, individual, youth- 
ful, enterprising, strong, — is the manner, the process of its 
growth as tlie promise mid pledge of its perpetuity. Men ask, 
" Sooner or later will it not fall to pieces ? " Yes, when the 
mountains fall of their own gravity. In the past, nations have 
grown by rapine ; they have conquered to rend and to drain. 
We invite all nations into our family, and help and influence 
them. We but open our gates, and the human sluices from 
both hemispheres pour in and people the land. We construct 
an empire by no piecemeal, patchwork process. Our glori- 
ous Republic is not a manufacture, a fabric, but an organism, 
an evolution in the order of Nature. We grow as the tree 



21 



grows, — from seed to blossom, to fruit. We grow by the nat- 
ural process of absorption and organization. See, — for the way 
of it is beautiful and unique ! First, the several original Colo- 
nies united in a confederacy of thirteen States, and started on 
their career as a brotherhood ; then, as the forest moved back 
before the woodman's axe, and the clearing invited the sower's 
hand, and the ox bent its neck to the plough, and above the 
tree-tops from rude cabins the smoke went curling up, sugges- 
tive of peace, and homes were made, and the cricket chirruped 
on the hearth, — then the wild region, tamed, budded into a 
" territory ; " and then from a territory, with increasing popu- 
lation and developed resources, blossomed into a " State," 
freedom -crowned ! 

Thus, by a process of absorption and organization, our 
great Republic from its small beginnings has grown to its 
present imperial dimensions ; and this process will continue 
— for what shall stay or hinder? — till we have formed this 
entire continent (not Canada nor Mexico excluded) into innu- 
merable self-governments, with a common central intelligence 
directing the life of all, while each shall be free to lead the 
separate existence of a neighbor among neighbors. 

Oh, how one's pulse bounds, how one's breath quick- 
ens or stops, thrilled with the thought that here victories 
are won which are followed by no reverse ; that here is an 
empire which is exempt from the natural causes of decay and 
cannot soon dissolve, — not war-acquired, but peace-born, Na- 
ture's gift ; an empire of Freedom, of Brotherhood, Equality 
under the Law, justice to all and a chance for all, — "a govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people." 

I have said that our country's growth is organic, like the 
growth of a tree. But tree and plant and flower, green and 
beautiful and fragrant for a time, at last decay. Let us find 
a similitude in things less perishable, in things which cannot 
pass away, in that which endures while ages roll. Look up 
and behold the starry sky ! there is our nation's effigy, its 
likeness in the planetary system, — orbs of splendid ray, of 
different age and size and length of year, each a separate, 
individual, sovereign world, yet interdependent, all feeling one 



22 



attraction, all joined in one destiny, revolving around one 
common centre, the all-sustaining sun, and "drinking light 
and life and glory from his aspect." 

Ah ! my little men and women whom I see before me, you 
are not old enough yet to know what all this means. But who 
can tell what your eyes shall behold when ours are closed ? — 
for you will one day take our places. And oh, ye young men 
and maidens fair, close pressing upon our heels, let me exhort 
you to understand and know and appreciate and improve the 
unspeakable privileges and blessings to the enjoyment of 
which, as Americans, by birth and education you are the 
very elect of God. 

I count it the chief glory of our country that it offers to 
all who will accept the gift, unlimited welcome to such 
opportunities as can nowhere else be found on the face of 
the globe ; that, putting no hindrance in the way, it extends 
to all alike, to foreign-born as well as native-born, the only 
patronage a brave manhood ought to ask for, — the patronage 
of equal opportunity. Here nothing hinders ; the way is 
clear, the path is open, the field is wide ; go in, occupy, and 
possess the land ! " Uncle Sam " not only gives you a farm, 
as the old song has it ; but what is infinitely more, he gives 
you an open door, and a free thoroughfare to any and every 
part of the Temple of Honor your ambition may aspire to, 
your ability attain. Here exists no law of caste, no monar- 
chical system of nobility, no aristocracy of birth, no monop- 
oly of rights and privileges, thank God, which can keep you 
back — without your consent, your cowardly yielding and 
giving up — from any place or position you aspire to, or rather 
from the opportunity, a fair chance, with every other man, to 
struggle for it and attain it, if, as I have already said, you 
have the requisite ability, the brave self-sacrifice, the strong, 
indomitable will. 

For this, all hail to the country of Washington ! all hail to 
this great, magnificent Republic, which, piloted by his wisdom, 
early escaped the rocks of an unexplored sea, and to-day, 
when a hundred years are past, survives, unshipwrecked, the 
fiercest gale that ever howled and beat upon a nation, and 



still carries at masthead, " not a star dimmed, not a stripe 
erased," the freedom-emblazoned flag which is become the 
sign and symbol of Human Liberty, Progress, and Brother- 
hood wherever it unfurls in waves of beauty on the winds 
that blow around the world ! 

" Boom, cannon, boom to the winds and waves ! 
Clash out, glad bells, from every rocking steeple ! 
Banners, advance with triumph, bend your staves ! 

And from every mountain-peak 
Let beacon-fire to answering beacon speak. 

She that lifts up the manhood of the poor, 
She of the open soul and open door, 
With room about her hearth for all mankind. 
O beautiful, my country ! 

What words divine of lover or of poet 
Could tell our love and make thee know it, 
Among the nations bright beyond compare ? 

What were our lives without thee ? 

What, all our lives to save thee ? 

We reck not what we gave thee ; 

We will not dare to doubt thee, — 
But ask whatever else, and we will dare ! 



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